New Information Technology units to be taxed at residential rate in Pune

Pune: In order to promote Information and Technology sector in Pune, the Pune Municipal Corporation has decided to provide concession in property tax for the new IT companies which will be setting up their offices in Pune. These new companies will be charged property tax as per residential rate and not commercial rate.

The proposal regarding the same was approved in the general body meeting (GBM) of PMC which went on till nearly 10 pm on Wednesday. Congress corporator Aba Bagul had opposed the proposal stating that the companies are earning huge revenue by using city’s infrastructure and therefore, no concession should be given to these companies, however, the proposal was approved after majority of the corporators voted in favour of the proposal.
Hemant Nikam, head of the property tax department said, “The new companies which will be setting up their units from this year will be eligible for the concession. These new companies will be charged property tax as per the residential rate which will be nearly half of the commercial rate. The idea behind providing concession is to encourage more IT companies to set up their units in the city as it will prove beneficial for the city also.”
Earlier, the IT units were getting the concession in property tax as per the provisions of the state government’s IT policy of 2003. However, the policy got expired in 2009 after which the standing committee had decided not to give concession to IT units as it was affecting PMC’s revenue collection. But, there was a constant demand from the IT sector of Pune to provide concession to the IT sector of the city and last year, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had given assurance of providing concession to the IT sector.